By NEIL MODIE, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, June 19, 2007

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng had $194,315 in his re-election campaign fund when he died last month, and the Democratic Party is fearful -- needlessly, it turns out -- that it'll end up helping his Republican heir apparent.

"No money will be spent directly or indirectly to help (acting prosecutor) Dan Satterberg," Seattle attorney Mike McKay said Tuesday. Judy Maleng, the late prosecutor's wife, "has made that clear," he said.

McKay was a close friend of Maleng's and his campaign treasurer. He now is treasurer of Satterberg's campaign to succeed Maleng; Satterberg was Maleng's longtime chief of staff.

McKay said he expects Judy Maleng to donate a "substantial portion" of the campaign fund to charity.

Worried that Maleng's money might go to Satterberg, state Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz tried to fire a pre-emptive shot in a news release Tuesday.

"A fair-minded leader like Norm Maleng should not have his campaign cash laundered through a Tom DeLay-style money machine," Pelz said, referring to the indicted former U.S. House Republican leader. "Out of respect for Maleng's legacy, that money should rightfully go to charity, not to fund attack ads or earmarked to help anoint a partisan replacement."

The money could be a big boost to a candidate such as Satterberg, a political newcomer running in an abbreviated campaign time frame. He is the only Republican candidate for Maleng's job. Deputy Prosecutor Bill Sherman and Keith Scully, an environmental lawyer and also a former Maleng deputy, are running for the Democratic nomination.

Sherman has used the Maleng campaign treasury as a fundraising device, warning in an e-mail to potential donors, "The Republicans are already talking about dumping nearly $200,000 into the race just to start, so you can be assured that your contribution will be used effectively."

Pelz said if Maleng's money were given to the Republican Party to indirectly help the Satterberg campaign -- "as some Satterberg backers have been whispering is likely -- it would be tantamount to the sort of illegal and unethical political money laundering that Republicans have become known for on the national level."

Except that it would be legal.

Under state law, the money can't go directly to another candidate. But it could be given to the Republican Party, which would be free to spend it to support the Satterberg campaign as long as that isn't a condition of the donation.

McKay said Judy Maleng will decide how the campaign fund will be spent.

"I'm quite confident a substantial portion of that money will go to charity, and we look forward to Judy announcing where that money is going sometime in the near future," McKay said. "No money will be spent in a calculated way to go to Dan Satterberg's campaign, even though Judy is strongly supporting Dan's campaign."